Windswept
by sassywhatevers
Summary: Like a silent breeze, she arrived into their lives. The story of a princess and a thief. Or is it? (NaruHina Historical AU)
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

一寸先は闇

 _"who can see into the future?"_

* * *

It was an especially dark night, and the streets of Old Oto were devoid of people, the locals knowing that loitering about at night was akin to asking to get murdered or raped and left on the streets.

A girl ran as fast as she could, her pursuers closing in on her, jeers and taunts ringing out in the abandoned neighborhood.

Hinata had known that Oto was a dangerous place, but she hadn't been prepared for _this_ kind of situation.

The wind beat harshly at her face as she desperately turned a corner, lungs screaming for air. Her legs ached but she ran on, not looking back, for the sounds of thundering footsteps and drunken calls were enough to let her know of the imminent danger she was in.

She rounded another corner and ran face-first into what felt like a wall. Dazedly looking up, she realized that, terrifyingly enough, she had run into another man. He looked like he had his wits about him, unlike her intoxicated chasers, but the sight of an unaccompanied, flustered young girl in a deserted area was usually enough to turn even normally rational men into lecherous ones in those parts.

Fortunately for her, the man looked worried and whispered to her, "Leave it to me."

"Where'd that bitch go?"

"I coulda sworn I saw her run into this alley...Fuck."

"What's wrong, Ryosuke?"

The man, no, her savior walked out of the shadows into the dim lighting and growled in a menacing tone, a far cry from his earlier sympathetic voice.

"You bastards better beat it before I beat the shit out of _you_."

"It's a Black Coat!"

"Shit! What are you waiting for, lets move, no girl is worth getting clobbered by those animals!"

The men left in a nervous frenzy, almost falling over themselves in their attempts to get away.

Hinata felt the stress of the evening get to her, her vision darkening until she succumbed to her tiredness and slumped, unconscious next to the man who had saved her life.

* * *

Hinata opened her eyes, wincing at the sudden influx of light on her sensitive eyes.

The room she was in was divine, she dazedly decided, gorgeous patterns of cherry blossom trees embellishing the exquisite fusuma [1] and the beautiful ikebana [2] arrangement in an alcove.

Hinata's eyes widened suddenly and she sat up in a hurry, memories of the previous night flooding her head.

 _Where am I?_

The room _was_ lavish, considering the fact that it was Oto, but it was nowhere near enough for her family's high (picky, in her opinion) standards. So she quickly abandoned the thought that she had been rescued from her predicament by one of her own blood. She debated the thought that one of the men chasing her last night had succeeded in snagging her off the street, but the idea was firmly cast off, as the scum looked nowhere near wealthy enough for a room of this sort. Experience had shown her that men of wealth tended to display all of it. And those men certainly had none to display.

Her thoughts were abruptly halted with the sound of the screen door sliding open. The scent of cherry blossoms wafted through the air as a woman in a red yukata walked into her room. Hinata thought at first that it was a trick of the light, but as the woman slid the door closed, she saw that she wasn't mistaken.

The woman's hair was pink.

She glided elegantly through the room as though she were an empress, and her features were ethereally beautiful. She looked like a goddess descended from heaven to converse with lowly mortals like herself.

"How are you feelin', sweetheart?"

The effect was ruined when she opened her mouth. She talked like the women in Ame, the red-light district. In other words, a prostitute.

The woman seemed to pick up on the fact that Hinata was flustered, as she said, "Stop worryin' your pretty little head. My name is Sakura Haruno. You're with us now, you're safe. Nobody's gonna hurt you, okay darlin'? Come on now, Boss said he wanted to see you as soon as you woke up."

She ushered Hinata to her feet.

Leading her to the doorway, she continued, "What's your name?"

"Hinata", she responded, almost mechanically. She knew that giving away her family name was not wise in the current situation. "Um, Haruno-san," she continued. "Where are we?"

"We're in Oto. And drop the Haruno-san thing. Call me Sakura!"

"Alright, Sakura-san."

"Anyways, you're lucky Inuzuka found you when he did, honey. A pretty little thing like you all alone in the streets at night? What were you thinking?"

Hinata opened her mouth, "I was trying to-" Suddenly it occurred to her that telling this woman, whom she had never met before, all of her problems was not a wise thing. "- find someone," she fibbed.

The two women engaged in mindless chatter as Sakura led the way to the biggest room in what seemed to be a compound of some sort. Sliding the door open, the red-clad woman shouted, "Boss! I've got Miss Pretty here! Should I just leave her here and go?"

Hinata heard nothing, but apparently the other woman had, for she turned to Hinata and said, "Go on in, sweetie. Don't be scared, he doesn't bite."

Giving her a roguish wink, the taller woman whirled away in a flash of pink and red, leaving her alone outside the room. Sakura's words had not left Hinata with any sense of safety, and when she ventured into the room, it was only her noble upbringing that straightened her spine and hid the shivers that ran down it in anticipation.

* * *

 _[1] In Japanese architecture, fusuma are vertical rectangular panels which can slide from side to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors._

 _[2] Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement._


	2. Chapter 2

**One**

虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず

 _"nothing ventured, nothing gained"_

* * *

"Shut the door," came the sound of a rough voice, startling Hinata. She moved hurriedly to do so, fingers slipping into the round catch and tugging. The door slid shut.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki. Do you know where you are?" His words were gentle, lending a pleasant contrast to his voice. Hinata took a closer look at the man Sakura had called 'Boss'. He was tall, almost intimidatingly so, and the loose kimono he wore showed his well-developed torso. A strip of black fabric on his forehead kept the his shaggy blond hair from falling onto his tanned face, and a pair of almost-impossibly blue eyes looked back at her. Noblewoman or no, Hinata was having a hard time keeping her blush at bay.

"N-no," she started, and immediately berated herself for fumbling with her words. _What am I, twelve?_

Before she could elaborate, however, the door slid open and a man came thundering in. Hinata didn't recognize him at first, but the sound of his voice as he uttered a quick, "Sorry for being late, Boss," rang bells in her mind. It was the man who had saved her the previous night!

Hinata carefully studied the new man's appearance as the two held a conversation of whispered words. Inuzuka-san, as she knew from Sakura, was almost as tall as Uzumaki-san. As he talked, she saw that his expressions slightly contorted a pair of fang-shaped tattoos on his cheeks, of all places. His hair was a no-nonsense brown, and from what she could tell, his eyes were deep black.

She observed that he wore a loose black haori. That jogged her memory from the previous night.

 _"It's a Black Coat!"_

 _"Shit! What are you waiting for, lets move, no girl is worth getting clobbered by those animals!"_

So clearly, she had stumbled into the bowels of some sort of gang, or organisation. One that sent fear into the hearts of the Old Oto inhabitants, but had members compassionate enough to rescue a damsel in distress.

All her life, Hinata had been dismissed as a damsel in distress. Her father had done it, so had her sister, and you didn't need to be a genius to see the looks of contempt her bodyguards used to show her.

Her thoughts were interrupted, as the two men turned to face her. "Sakura-chan didn't say what your name was," said the blond.

"I am Hinata...Yuuhi,"she said, her mind throwing in the last name of her former governess. "I-I don't know anything! All I know is that I woke up last night in the back-room of a tea-house, and when I tried to escape those men chased after me!" _Throwing in a bit of the truth with my lie_ , she thought, _will make it even stronger_. "I don't know why I was there, I don't know anything, Uzumaki-san!" A bit of genuine fear had escaped the mental wall she had built, wetting her pale eyes and making her dainty hands shiver.

"Calm down, Yuuhi-san. We won't hurt you. You can stay here until my men get to the bottom of it. This has been happening a lot recently, the village girls disappearing left and right. But an outsider has never been taken yet," he said, his jaw clenched. "You aren't hurt, right?" he asked more gently.

She shook her head, fearing that her voice would tremble if she spoke. She never wanted to hear herself stutter again.

"Kiba, escort her to her room. She's too high-strung right now for us to get any information from her."

"Roger that, Boss."

* * *

Word in the House was that Kiba had rescued a fair maiden from the slimy hands of her would-be captors. It had been a long time since the group had a new face among them, and the conversation they all had that evening was largely concerning this 'Hinata'.

"I heard that she is even more beautiful than Tsunade-hime," said a woman in a flowing violet kimono with long, lustrous blonde hair that flowed free of restraints.

"She is a very good looking girl. A bit quiet, though, maybe," replied Sakura, all traces of her Ame accent gone. "Anyways, Ino, while you were fishing out the finest gossip in the House, did you find time to gather the information about those rats?"

The woman, Ino, replied,"I went to the usual places, and the men there weren't very helpful, but a guy at the tea house run by Kin Tsuchi, I forget the name, he had a lot to say. If his masters knew how loose his tongue gets with a little sake, they wouldn't be very pleased with him."

"And?" prompted a sickly-looking young man in a black yukata.

"Well, the deal is that apparently they are recruiting women for some sort of agreement with Kiri's daimyou. The girls are rounded up from tea-houses, drugged, and taken to the harbor," said Ino.

"Hn. That corresponds with most of our information. Any names?" asked a tall man with black hair.

"Nothing concrete yet."

"Okay. Now here's this week's roster. Sakura, you scour Ame for information on Tuesday and Thursday. Make use of all your oiran friends. They'll be sure to know something," said Naruto, his posture and tone radiating authority.

"Got it," replied Sakura.

"Ino, you hit up North's tea-houses on Monday and South's on Wednesday," he said, turning to the blonde.

"Roger that, boss."

"Tenten, you do East and West, Saturday and Sunday, you're a regular face in those parts," said Naruto, addressing a tall woman whose brown hair was pinned up in two buns.

"Okay," she said, not looking up from the sword she was sharpening.

"That's it for today, ladies. Sai, Sasuke, come with me, there's some news that Kiba's brought back," said Naruto, motioning to the pale, sick-looking man, and the dark haired one. They both followed him out of the common room, the door sliding shut with a resounding thud.

"Hey, how come I get the weekend shift!"

* * *

A/N- All of you who reviewed, I'm very grateful!

Also, this won't be in any way an actual historical story, I'm just trying to weave in parts of Japan's actual culture and history into an alternate universe.

Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Two**

継続は力なり

 _"persevere and never fear"_

* * *

 _What do I do?_

The question echoed over and over in Hinata's mind as she lay on the futon somebody had spread out for her in what she now dubbed as 'her' room. The room was pleasant enough that she was sure it wasn't used to hold prisoners, because nobody would painstakingly decorate the screen doors in such a lovely manner for only captives to admire.

If an outsider were to be looking in on her life right now, her days in this beautiful house in Oto would seem relaxing compared to the life she led back in her ancestral home. But to be completely honest to herself, Hinata had gotten so used to being the 'inheritor of her family's legacy' that she found herself longing for the sound of her father's voice, no matter how harsh his words were, she longed for the solace she found in her gardens and she longed for those rare, precious moments that she got to spend with her little sister, no matter how much Hanabi resented her for being the older of the two.

It was like missing a thorn in her side.

 _"Why do you stutter so, daughter?"_

 _"Hold up your head, you are royalty, not a servant-girl."_

 _"Why are you not as competent as Hanabi?"_

 _"If only you weren't so like your mother."_

Life as a princess had forced her to mature. It wasn't all about having soft, white hands and a pretty face. She was the future ruler of her province, so it was deemed appropriate that she learned how to hold herself with dignity.

She could count on one hand the number of times she had seen her father genuinely smile after her mother died, and still have fingers left over. It was a curse, her mother had told her on her deathbed, the Curse of Pride. Her family, as far as she could remember, were enslaved by their own proud nature. It was a burden for Hinata, she just wanted to live a simple life, with little worries.

Maybe, however, it was a chance for her to let down the weight on her shoulders.

She got up and padded over to the alcove with the cabinet where a blond woman who called herself Ino Yamanaka had stored a yukata for her bath-house needs.

She could start with soaking her worries away.

* * *

The bath-house was an abandoned _sentō_ [1] that was run by the House, so it was open to all its residents and, for lack of a better word, their visitors. Ino-san had told her that she was welcome to use it and had given her some clothes to wear as well.

Hinata swirled her wet hair into a bun, having cleansed her skin from dirt. She walked carefully over to the large, sunken tub and eased herself into the steaming water, sighing deeply as she felt the tension in her shoulders melt away.

This was akin to bliss.

Just as she was beginning to feel her skin wrinkle under the water, she heard a soft thudding sound outside the bathing area, but it wasn't from inside the building. The sound had come from outside the bath-house.

Getting up, Hinata walked to the changing room and donned her yukata quickly, fastening the left side over the right with the plain obi.

She rushed to the empty entrance room and made for the entryway. Ducking under the _noren_ [2] curtains, she exited the building, only to find a collapsed heap of fur and blood and robes. She gulped.

 _Is it some kind of monster?_

She gingerly took a step towards the body. From its subtle rise and fall motions, she could tell that whatever it was, it was still alive - if only just barely.

She held out a hand to touch it, when suddenly, the whole mass began to glow and shrink. The light was so intense that she had to shield her eyes with her sleeve. When she sensed that the glow had subsided, she opened her eyes and surveyed the scene before her.

She had suspected it when she saw the color of the blood-stained robes, and as she saw the person turn onto his back, groaning, she knew she was right.

 _It's Inuzuka-san!_

Dainty hands were held forward to help up the injured man, and Kiba gratefully took her help. He stood up gingerly and flexed his wrists.

"Are you alright, Inuzuka-san?"

Her voice appeared as dainty as her hand, but it was firm. Kiba's face took on an expression of shock, as though he had only just realized who had helped him up. Looking at the disoriented state he was in, it didn't seem too far fetched. He gulped, knowing that he was going to be in deep shit with his boss. If he found out that Hinata had seen him in his real form, Naruto would suspend him from duties for a week! He steeled himself and said, "Listen, you didn't see anything, okay?"

She looked far too calm for his taste.

"That may be so, but you haven't yet answered my question," she said. "Are you alright?" she asked, when it seemed as though he couldn't recall what she had asked.

If Kiba was taken aback at her laid-back demeanor, he didn't let it show on his face. He answered just as calmly as she, that he was alright.

"Then I have nothing to worry about," replied the woman. "If you will excuse me, Inuzuka-san, I must return to the room you have been so kind to provide me with. I will not tell anyone about what I saw today. It can be a sort of repayment for saving my life, although it is a poor one."

With that, she turned and left, making her way to the House, leaving a stunned Kiba Inuzuka in her wake.

* * *

The Yuuhi girl was strange.

 _It isn't that she's an oddity_ , thought Kiba, _just that she's clearly hiding something_.

He winced, the gash in his calf sending a flash of pain up his spine as he took a step.

 _I need to get this bandaged up._

* * *

 _[1] Sent_ _ō were bath-houses that ran artificially heated water for communal bathing._

 _[2]Noren_ _are traditional Japanese fabric dividers, mostly hung in the entrances of ramen stands and bath houses._

A/N- For all of you who reviewed, every one of those reviews left such a huge, cheesy smile on my face, that my mom asked me if I got a new boyfriend :P

Please review, even if its constructive criticism. Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Three**

苦あれば楽あり

 _"after rain comes fair weather"_

* * *

It had been precisely one week since Hinata had arrived at the House. The women had started talking about how Hinata seemed more cheerful and less reserved than she had been before.

"I'm sure we've all noticed," said Tenten, her eyes for once not fixed on a piece of weaponry. They were in the courtyard, and the soft warmth of afternoon sun washed over their bodies.

"Noticed what?" said a man's voice. Sasuke, it seemed, had returned from his rounds.

" _Anata_ , don't scare us like that!" said Sakura in a tone filled with mock-fear.

"All of us know damn well that you sensed me from a mile away. I couldn't scare you even if I wanted to," replied Sasuke, his face seemingly apathetic, but his eyes alight with amusement. His lover was a mischievous woman, that was for sure. "Anyways, what did you ladies notice?"

"Well, Hinata has been slightly more lively recently," said Ino.

"She's not the only one," said Sasuke, eyebrows creasing slightly. "Even Inuzuka's been more reactive than usual lately. He jumps every time Naruto addresses him."

"I wonder if their behaviour is connected," Sakura mused out loud. "We should find out."

"That will come later," said Sasuke, moving closer to the pink-haired woman. "We need to talk," he whispered into her ear.

Gulping subtly, Sakura nodded. She pasted a large smile onto her face and waved a hurried goodbye to the other two women before heading inside with Sasuke.

"I wonder what's going on with those two," said Ino, only to be met with silence.

Tenten didn't like discussing other people's love-lives. She respected privacy, having next to none herself because of being roomed with Ino.

* * *

"Sakura, when were you going to tell me about this?" asked Sasuke. His eyes told Sakura that he was not angry, but his tone was as brusque as it always was.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sakura, feigning innocence.

"You know what I'm talking about. Our _child_ ," replied Sasuke. His dark gaze shifted to her belly, and he repeated, almost tenderly, " _Our_ child."

"How did you know?" asked Sakura. She had dropped all pretenses. Sasuke had always been very intuitive, but him knowing of their... _predicament_ was impossible. She had told no one about her pregnancy, so she knew that he hadn't found out from Ino's gossip-chain, or from Naruto.

"Our kind have always been able to tell when our mates are with child. It is an instinct passed on by blood to all of us," said Sasuke. "But more importantly, we need to get you off duty for the time being. At least till she is born."

Sakura nodded. The warrior-woman in her detested having to stay on the sidelines, but she needed to take on the other roles life gave her as well. Motherhood had just arrived sooner than any of them had expected.

"What do we tell Naruto?"

"The truth."

"By the way does your kind also know the gender of the baby by instinct?"

"No, I just thought having a daughter to spoil would be nice."

* * *

Naruto rarely got to just talk with his friends after he took up his position. The House was home to many he considered his own, but he couldn't remember the last time they'd just talked, no reports, no rosters, nothing. Just hearty laughs and good company.

He had been sifting through yet another pile of patrol reports on his desk, longing for a hot, steaming cup of tea, when Sasuke barged into his office, Sakura following close by.

He looked up and beamed, happy at the welcome distraction, but his smile fell when he noticed the tenseness surrounding the two.

"What?" he demanded. "What happened?"

Sasuke opened his mouth, closed it and looked at Sakura. She gave him a tiny nod, and he said, almost blurted ,"She's pregnant."

Naruto was happy for them, and he told them so, but he couldn't distinguish that spark of worry at the back of his mind, so he voiced it. "What about your kind, Sasuke? Will they come after you for impregnating a human?"

It seemed that they had already contemplated this, for Sasuke smoothly answered, "I am sure they will not interfere. This child is the last hope for our poisonous blood to perish. The _Tengu_ [1] clan have always carried this curse, and we will be glad to get rid of it. Besides, Sakura is no ordinary human." It was true. Sakura had very faint _oni_ [2] blood running in her veins.

Naruto nodded, satisfied. He allowed his famous grin to appear on his face. "So, I guess I'll have to look for a new scout. Sakura can't do her missions with a baby in the picture.

"That's why we came to you, idiot."

Naruto pouted.

After the couple left, Naruto started thinking. What with some unknown, possibly supernatural, force stirring up problems, the _Yōkai_ [3] Corps had to step up to do their duties. Tsunade-hime, the Fire Empress of the Elemental Nations, had explicitly bestowed the title of Commander onto him, trusting him. He couldn't break that trust. He needed a replacement, and fast.

* * *

Hinata started awake. She gently yawned and rose from her futon. Whatever had woken her, she thought idly, was welcome. As she had nothing much to do but sit around and sometimes chat with Ino, Tenten or Sakura, she had taken to sleeping. But too much sleep was never a good thing.

Her dark hair was a mess, as it usually was whenever she woke from a deep slumber. She brought out a simple wooden comb and a mirror from an alcove with the intent to tame it. Setting the mirror against the wall, she sat on the floor and picked up the comb. She raised her eyes to the mirror -

The comb fell to the floor with a soft thudding sound.

Hinata's usually black eyes had turned into a blank, pure white.

* * *

 _[1] Tengu are avian (bird-like) Japanese yōkai (see note below)._

 _[2] Oni are humanoid yōkai, also called demons._

 _[3] Yōkai are a class of supernatural beings in Japanese folklore, and many have the ability to shape-shift and are called obake. In this story, all the yōkai are obake, meaning that they have taken their human forms._

 _Note: If you know anything about Japanese mythology, you will know that I have horribly misused my creative license for this story, but I hope you enjoy my bastardized version as well._

A/N- Do you guys think I should stick with the short 1K word chapters and fast updates, or should I update slower with more chapter content? Please answer in the reviews. Also, constructive criticism is welcome, if you've got any for me! Thanks for all the reviews :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Four**

乗りかかった船

 _"in for a penny, in for a pound"_

* * *

Kiba had stayed up the previous night, looking up the name Yuuhi in the family registry. There was a _Yuuhi, Shinku_ and there was a separate _Yuuhi-Sarutobi_ registered, but no Yuuhi, Hinata. The dark-haired girl had lied about who she was.

He got up, leaving the mess of papers on his desk behind him, and strode out his room.

* * *

Ino and Sai were talking on the porch, in the afternoon sun when Kiba walked past them and to the corridor that led to Hinata's room. Sai only looked vaguely intrigued, but Ino pulled him up and insisted on tailing the Inuzuka, saying "They must be meeting in secret! We _have_ to find out!"

Sai didn't bother suggesting that meeting in secret would better be done at night, when everyone (Ino in particular) was asleep. He didn't have a death wish.

They followed Kiba at a safe distance, and surely enough, he stopped at Hinata's door. He seemed to be having an internal debate about whether to enter or not, when he shook his head, sending his shaggy brown locks flying, and slid the door open with an unnecessary force.

Kiba's entrance was followed by a small pause, then a squeak of shock, which _surprisingly_ enough, came from Kiba.

"Wha- How..?"

He seemed incapable of words.

Ino's curiosity was stoked even further and she dragged a long-suffering Sai to what she had hastily dubbed "the crime scene".

A pair of blank, white eyes stared back at the three of them.

Ino shrieked, and with a strange kind of fluidity, Hinata fainted.

* * *

Naruto looked at Sai, in a way that prompted him to say whatever he had to say. Today was a busy day, as the merchants and traders were going to be coming into town. Preparations needed to be made, and duties assigned, accordingly.

"That Yuuhi girl's dead."

"What? What do you mean she's dead? How could she die?" asked Naruto, jumping from his seat.

"Ha, I got you," said Sai. "She just fainted."

The worst part about Sai, thought Naruto, was that he just didn't know _when_ to make jokes.

* * *

"Well, she's going to be fine. She collapsed from extremely high blood pressure, so she'll need to rest for a bit," said Sakura, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Now," began Naruto. "What exactly happened here?"

Sai opened his mouth - "Kiba, you explain." - and promptly shut it.

"Well, first of all, she's not who she says she is. There's no Yuuhi Hinata in the registry," said Kiba. "When I went to her room to confront her about it, she just turned and looked at me with her _eyes_."

Naruto was puzzled.

"With her eyes? Everyone looks at you with their eyes, Kiba, get to the point," said a pissed-off looking Sasuke.

"Well the thing is," said Ino, "You know how her eyes were normal, right? They were dark, right? But when we went to her room to, er, ask her if she wanted to play _go_ [1] with us, they were completely white."

"Yeah, and they were kind of eerie. It was like she was hypnotizing me with her eyes," Kiba added.

"Alright, alright that's enough! Naruto, you take this up in your office, stop crowding he-" "Danger."

Sakura was interrupted by Hinata's soft voice. Her eyes were wide open and directed towards Naruto, but it looked as though she was seeing past him, and at something else. Her voice itself had taken on a strangely ethereal quality, and despite being as quiet as usual, seemed to reverberate through the room.

"What?" asked Naruto.

"Danger. You are in danger, _Kitsune_ [2]." replied Hinata.

"How does she know what Naruto is?" whispered Ino, albeit loudly.

"I see all, _Yuki no Onna_ [3]. I see terrible sights. I see much blood and pain. It's coming! He's coming for the child!" Hinata's words were garbled, as though she was trying to get all of the information out at one go, and her voice escalated gradually, until it became a wail. Her eyes rolled up into her skull and she fainted yet again.

A silence washed over the room.

Sakura's hand had instinctively moved to her abdomen, her eyes wide with fear. Sasuke was showing some semblance of emotion on his face. Ino was trying to suppress her sobs, and Sai looked paler than usual. Kiba looked like he was going to be sick. Naruto walked out of the room.

* * *

A foul grin spread over a stark white face as golden, snake-like eyes widened in glee. The figure lifted himself from his nest of shed snakeskin and walked, no, glided across the dark, musty room. Clammy hands clasped a rusty handle, and the sounds of insane cackles echoed.

* * *

 _[1]Go is an adversarial game, like chess, with the objective of having surrounded a larger total area of the board with one's pieces than the opponent_

 _[2]Kitsune is a fox yōkai (refer to previous chapter)._

 _[3]Yuki no Onna literally means Woman of the Snow. A kind of yōkai, whose presence causes snow._

 _Please correct me if I am wrong._

 **a/n : I am SO sorry this took so long, guys. I have no excuse, it was writer's block, plain and simple. I can't tell you how many times I retyped this chapter, because I hated it. I hate this version least, but I hope you enjoy it anyways. Please review :)**

 **ALSO THIS STORY HAS MORE THAN 1K VIEWS WHAT.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Five**

良薬口に苦し

 _"bitter pills may have welcome effects"_

* * *

 _Who are you?_

Hinata was immersed in a darkness that engulfed her entire being. She swam through the inky depths of her mind, the darkness threatening to stifle her altogether.

 _Who are you?_

There was a light, she could see it! It was hard to pinpoint amidst the pitch black she was surrounded by, but she could just about make it out! She got closer and all of a sudden it was blindingly bright. And then it receded. A woman stood in front of her, back towards her, seemingly entranced by a wisp of the darkness that she had twirled around her finger.

 _Who are you?_

The voice was soft, but firm. It persisted until she realized it was _her_ lips that were moving and it was _she_ who was saying the words.

"Who are you?"

The figure, swathed in robes of pure white, turned as though she had only just sensed Hinata's presence. Her hair, face and body were the same as Hinata's. But her eyes were completely blank, unlike Hinata's own dark ones. She stared at her, as if she were looking at a petulant child.

"I am the _Hyakume no_ _Hime_ [1]."

Her speech was archaic, and her accent hard to understand, but Hinata understood the gist of what she was saying. It was like listening to one of the old folk tales her grandmother had liked narrating.

"What's that?" asked Hinata, pointing to the black substance that was looped through the strange entity's fingers.

"It appears that you have no more brain than a stone, child. These are the Stories of the Land."

"Stories?"

The woman tutted. "The Stories, child. The Stories of what happened yesterday, what happens today, and what will happen tomorrow."

It was an otherworldly experience, mused Hinata, to be told off by a creature that had your face.

* * *

Outside the inner reaches of Hinata's mind, and in the physical world, Sakura was engaged in a heated argument with Naruto.

"I don't care if you want her to wake up now, she is in some sort of healing trance. She will wake up when she wants to wake up!" exclaimed Sakura.

"But Sakura-chan, she could be a spy! She could be working for the bad guys!"

Sakura grasped the sleeve of Naruto's loose kimono and all but dragged him out of the room. "Naruto, I understand that you want answers. I want them too. I'm so scared right now. What she said... It might be referring to mine and Sasuke's baby," she said softly.

Naruto's eyes softened.

"Sakura-chan, it's gonna be okay. Me and the bastard are never gonna let anyone touch you."

"It's the _bastard and I_ , Naruto," a quiet voice corrected. Sasuke moved to rest his hand on Sakura's shoulder. "We won't let anything happen to you or the baby," he reassured.

* * *

"Why are you inside me?"

Hinata felt odd. She'd never talked so much when she was conscious as when she was apparently unconscious.

The woman scoffed, as though Hinata's words had supremely offended her. "Are we not one, child? I am as much you, as you are me. We are two sides of the same coin, two facets of a soul."

Hinata's eyes widened.

"Are you saying that, that _I_ am the _Hyakume no Hime_?"

Hyakume smiled.

"You are Hyuuga Hinata. You are a great many things, and the _Hyakume no Hime_ is one of those things. You could say the _Hyakume no Hime_ is you, more than you are her."

Hinata's head was starting to hurt from all the vagueness that Hyakume seemed to emanate. Which should have been impossible, seeing as they were not in a physical plane of existence.

"Ah. It is time, it seems for our meeting to draw to a close," said the standoffish, yet oddly sweet, princess.

With a snap of the entity's dainty fingers, Hinata awoke.

* * *

The first thing Hinata did when she was awake enough that she didn't seem completely disoriented, was check the surroundings. Seeing that the room she was in seemed to be completely empty, she sat up and stretched her limbs. Getting up from the warm futon, she gently walked to the shōji screen. She tried to slide the door open without making much noise, but was so engrossed in remaining quiet, that she almost didn't notice Naruto's towering form outside the door.

 _Oh dear_.

Naruto looked at Hinata, carefully. His gaze wasn't filled with anger, and he didn't seem to be ready to kill her.

"I'll skip beating around the bush," began Naruto, in a business-like tone that clashed with the childishness Hinata had earlier caught a glimpse of. "Who are you?"

"Um, do you think we could possibly speak in your office, Uzumaki-san?" her voice was as soft as ever, Naruto noted, as he nodded.

The two began walking to the office, Hinata nervously trailing behind the imposingly tall figure of Naruto.

 _His shoulders are so broad..._

Reaching the gilded screen doors of Naruto's office, he opened the door swiftly and led Hinata inside.

She knelt on the tatami floor, and cleared her throat.

"I am Hyuuga Hinata, the first daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi," she said. "Please let me finish, Uzumaki-san, then you can ask your questions," said Hinata, noticing that he had been about to interrupt her. "As you may have heard, the Hyuuga clan was attacked recently. The compound was set on fire, and the report said that there were no...survivors."

Naruto noticed that her voice had trembled, almost failing her, before she continued her speech.

"I escaped in the fire with only a jeweled dagger and my mother's journal. I sold the dagger for the peasant robes Inuzuka-san found me in, but the journal is hidden under the futon in the room you so graciously gave me. I wandered for three months, sleeping in the woods and eating fruits that I picked. I don't know how I lasted that long, to be honest."

She paused, to take a deep, slow breath, trying to calm herself down. She was so close to breaking down, it scared her.

 _I thought I was over it._

"One night though, I must have gotten too close to the town. A group of men trying to get into Oto through the woods I was in captured me. They said something about 'taking me along with the other girls'. I-I don't know how, but I managed to escape, and that's how Inuzuka-san found me."

She looked at Naruto expectantly.

He let out a low whistle, and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, let's say I believe you. Claiming to be Hinata-sama is a risky gamble if it isn't true. But what was that back in the Infirmary? You freaked out and started to call me Kitsune and stuff," he said, looking hassled.

"I'm not entirely sure about how I did it, but I unleashed my true self."

"Which is?"

"I am the _Hyakume no Hime_ , Uzumaki-san."

* * *

 _[1] Hyakume no Hime, literally, Princess of a Hundred Eyes._

 _A/N: The reason this one took so long for me to upload is because I was almost going to discontinue the story._

 _As I've said, I completely appreciate constructive criticism, because that helps me grow as an author and fix up the mistakes that I tend to make._

 _But leaving messages like :_

You're story is pretty dumb. #desperateforreviews much? Ugh. So lame. Please get fucked by a cactus and die. Stupid author, stupid story, stupid pairing, stupid everything. Sassywhatevers, you SUCK.

 _is not in any way constructive criticism. If you don't like this story, don't read it._

 _Sorry for the rant, guys. As always, thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate the fact that you guys take the time to tell me what you think about this story._


	7. Chapter 7

**six and-a-half**

艱難にあって初めて真友を知る

 _"a friend is known in adversity"_

* * *

"Okaa-sama, why is otou-sama always so... like this?" asked the dark haired five-year-old, pulling the most serious face she could muster. The girl's cheeks were flushed an adorable red, and her dark eyes were wide with childish curiosity.

Hyuuga Harumi smiled at the antics of her beloved daughter.

Her husband was not a man she was in love with, but he was a man who was admirable. He was a respectable man when it came to business and ruling their province, but he was not very good at dealing with family matters, especially a five year old Hinata. He was almost never home, but when he was, his face was remarkably close to the one Hinata was pulling. Albeit a lot less childish.

A slight knock on the screen door interrupted Harumi's thoughts.

"My lady, your tea," a dark haired young woman, after sliding it open gently.

Kurenai was a good girl, and she had been sent to the Hyuuga house to serve as Harumi's handmaiden, when she had been married. She was seventeen now, and she enjoyed playing with the little "Hinata-sama". She thought that Harumi didn't know about the romance she had going on with young Sarutobi in the stables, but Harumi was nothing if not resourceful.

"Kurenai nee-chan!" Hinata's face lit up at seeing the girl. Kurenai smiled and turned to Harumi, as though asking for her permission. Harumi smiled and nodded.

As the two started to play whatever game Hinata had thought up, Harumi's thoughts went back to her ever-silent husband.

Even though Hiashi-sama was as mature as he was, he wasn't much older than her. He had been married young, in order to inherit the throne due to his father's untimely passing. He was a serious individual, that was true, but he was also kind, even though his stern nature masked that kindness.

She hoped that her daughters, the bubbly Hinata and the child growing in her womb, would grow up to appreciate that.

* * *

"Hinata nee-sama, Otou-sama summons you."

Hinata's little sister did not grow up with the mother's love that Hinata had been lucky enough to have. Mere months after Hanabi was born, Harumi had died of a mysterious illness.

Hanabi had grown under the stern eye of their father, Hyuuga Hiashi, and had become like a tiny version of the Hyuuga patriarch.

 _Even though Hanabi is merely eleven,_ Hinata mused, _Otou-sama still clearly prefers her to me._

Kurenai told her that it was simply that Hinata reminded her father too much of her mother to ever be comfortable around her.

"Hinata-sama, you must never lose faith. My lady was very worried about such a situation," she said, in her usual calm tones. "Hyuuga-sama, she said, is a man who rarely shows affection, but it is not that the affection is absent. It's just that it's not announced."

The fourteen year old Hinata, who was going through a rebellious streak (although all she had really done was speak a bit louder and stain her lips red with berries), thought differently.

Her father was just a cold man. She would bear his silence, but that did not mean that she had to love him.

Of course, Hinata's nature was fundamentally kind. Like her mother, she couldn't bring herself to not love her father, even with all of the man's inherent faults. It was simply how she was.

And so, she continued to love her father, her little sister, and even Kurenai, who was more like an older sister than a governess.

* * *

When Hinata was sixteen, her father had her betrothed to the second son of the Otsutsuki clan.

The man, Toneri, was five years her senior. He was attractive in an elegant way, and she had heard that he was a decent man. However, Hinata was not content with the arrangement.

As ridiculous as it seemed, she had always dreamed of falling in love and marrying the man of her dreams.

Kurenai was leaving her too, she was getting married to Asuma-san, the horse-handler. On her last day in the Hyuuga compound, Kurenai had embraced her firmly and told her, "Don't give up on your dream, my lady. You can still get married to the man you love. Who says it isn't Otsutsuki-sama? You can try to get to know him, and see if you like what you find."

Hinata was touched, and found herself on the verge of happy tears. "You called me 'my lady'. You've only ever called my mother that, onee-san."

"You have inherited your mother's kind nature, my lady. Her spirit shines through you, and almost everything you do speaks of her soul. I cannot help but see my mistress in you," said Kurenai, misunderstanding Hinata's tears.

"Oh no, onee-san, I am very happy that I have become a woman like my mother. Thank you. For everything."

* * *

Six months after Kurenai left, Toneri was staying in the Hyuuga household to get to know the family, and a banquet was being held in his honor.

That night, the Hyuuga house burned.

Hinata was secretly relieved that she didn't have to get married. And she hated herself for it.

* * *

 _A/N: This is just an extra chapter to expand a bit on Hinata's back story. I completely made up her mom's name, but for those of you who are interested,_ _Harumi (春美) means 'spring beauty'._

 _Also, thank you so, so much for all the encouraging reviews!They really made me smile. Thank you so much for liking my writing :)_


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